Margaret Collier Graham

Margaret Collier Graham (1850 – 1910) Witty and wealthy, Margaret was the writer, social justice activist and hostess to the educated elite who frequented her salons in the Victorian manor she and her husband built in South Pasadena. They named it Wynyate (Welsh for Vineyard). She was among the founding families of South Pasadena, a woman’s rights activist, short story writer and first person ever to get a letter delivered from the new Post Office.

At the beginning of the 20th century she and her husband had developed Lake Elsinor and Wildomar. The “Mar” in that city’s name is a reference to her first name. Married to South Pasadena’s first Mayor, Donald Graham, (the d-o in Wildomar,) together in 1887 they built a three-story Queen Anne Victorian cottage at 851 Lyndon Street, that remains a local landmark today in the city. There, surrounded by grapes and citrus, she conducted salons with the literati of her time. Charles Lummis, founder of the Los Angeles Public Library. Naturalist John Muir, godfather of our National Parks. She wrote for The Californian and The Argonaut as well as national publications including The Atlantic Monthly and Harper’s Magazine.

Her books were published by Houghton, Mifflin. She became known as the First Lady of the Foothills, active in fighting for civil reform, woman’s rights and equal rights. She befriended Owen Brown, wanted as a criminal for assisting his father, John Brown, famed abolitionist who led the Harper’s Ferry Revolt. Owen had moved to the foothills above Pasadena and lived a hermetic life, nevertheless revered by the locals. Margaret and her sister Jennie established the South Pasadena Lyceum, a precursor of the South Pasadena Public Library, in 1889.